The Sordid Saga of a Prime Minister's Culpability

"[Evidence] abundantly shows that Mr. Trudeau knowingly sought to influence Ms.Wilson-Raybould [former Attorney-General of Canada] both directly and through the actions of his agents."
"As prime minister, Mr. Trudeau was the only public office holder who, by virtue of his position, could clearly exert influence over Ms.Wilson-Raybould. The authority of the prime minister and his office was used to circumvent, undermine and ultimately attempt to discredit the decision of the director of public prosecutions as well as the authority of Ms. Wilson Raybould as the Crown's chief law officer."
"Because SNC-Lavalin overwhelmingly stood to benefit from Ms.Wilson-Raybould's intervention, I have no doubt that the result of Mr. Trudeau's influence would have furthered SNC-Lavalin's interests. The actions that sought to further these interests were improper since the actions were contrary to the constitutional principles of prosecutorial independence and the rule of law."
"During this examination, nine witnesses informed our office that they had information they believed to be relevant, but that could not be disclosed because, according to them, this information would reveal a [cabinet] confidence."
"Despite several weeks of discussions [with the Privy Council Office] the offices remained at an impasse over access to Cabinet confidences. Because of the decisions to deny our office further access to Cabinet confidences, witnesses were constrained in their ability to provide all evidence."
"I was, therefore, prevented from looking over the entire body of evidence to determine its relevance to my examination."
"[Despite these limitations, Mr. Trudeau] directly and through his senior officials, used various means to exert influence over Ms. Wilson-Raybould."
Public Sector Integrity Commissioner Mario Dion

Federal Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion released a report Wednesday about the SNC-Lavalin affair, finding Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was guilty of violating the Conflict of Interest Act. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

Quebec-based SNC-Lavalin enjoys close relations with the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau, a government that was determined to ensure that the global company charged with bribing Libyan government officials in 2001 and 2011 to the tune of $48 million, facing a ten-year ban on qualifying for federal contracts on conviction would avoid a trial. SNC-Lavalin lobbied hard and successfully to have the government introduce a process called remediation agreement to circumvent a criminal trial.

Despite which the public prosecutor deigned not to offer a remediation agreement to the company and to proceed with trial, a decision that then-Attorney General and Minister of Justice Jody Wilson-Raybould decided not to overturn. That decision led to a persistent campaign from the Prime Minister's Office, the prime minister himself, and senior government officials to urge her to change her mind. To all of which overtures she firmly insisted that hers was the final word given her official capacity and justice would be done.

Time and again the Attorney General indicated that she had no intention of instructing the prosecutorial services to reverse the decision to bring SNC-Lavalin to trial on criminal charges levied against it. And that the pressure being applied to her was illegal, and must be stopped. Time and again the aggravating overtures continued through various sources, all obviously under the imprimatur of the prime minister who himself informed her that nine thousand jobs in Montreal were at stake, and an election campaign was in the offing.

Finally, Ms. Wilson-Raybould was shuffled out of the position of Minister of Justice and Attorney General and given the down-graded ministry of Veterans Affairs. An unidentified source leaked all of this background information to the press and from then on a publicly-revealed drama of political malfeasance hit headlines, day after day with each new charge, contradiction and denial. Ms. Wilson-Raybould was frozen out of Cabinet, and one of her colleagues resigned her cabinet position with Treasury Board.


As the revealing controversy simmered on with occasional flare-ups amid accusations and denials, both women were dismissed from cabinet and caucus, to sit as independents, denied the opportunity to represent the Liberal Party in the forthcoming October election. An internal Parliamentary Committee investigation, half-hearted given the majority member makeup of Liberals commenced and was summarily shut down as more embarrassing revelations ensued. Leading to the Ethics Commissioner's own investigation.

With the conclusions he reached presented publicly yesterday; unequivocal and damning, representing the second time in two years that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been found guilty of ethics violations; the first time for accepting an expenses-paid exotic Christmas holiday family trip to an island luxury getaway as guest of the Aga Khan, a lobbyist and beneficiary of government funds for his projects, clearly breaking parliamentary ethics rules.

"Even though I disagree with some of his [Dion's] conclusions, I fully accept this report and take responsibility for everything that happened. Where I disagree with the commissioner, amongst others, is where he says, and takes a strong perspective, that any contact with the [attorney general] on this issue was improper."
"We recognize that the way this happened shouldn't have happened. I take responsibility for the mistakes that I made. I think we recognize that what was done over the past year, as we tried to both defend judicial independence, of prosecutorial independence, and stand up for Canadian jobs and workers, wasn't exactly the right way to do things. And we thank the ethics commissioner for the hard work that he did in highlighting that."
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks about a watchdog's report that he breached ethics rules by trying to influence a corporate legal case regarding SNC-Lavalin, in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada, August 14, 2019.   Andrej Ivanov / Reuters

Egotistically, patronizingly dismissive. Predictably stylistic. The accusations like water off a duck's back. It is not his place to unabashedly contradict such a finding. He 'accepts' the ultimate responsibility, but will not accept that he did anything out of the ordinary, abridging parliamentary rules, much less the basic rules of decency in lying and plotting, deceiving and playing the innocent while slandering someone who will not bend to his edicts. The royal 'we' aside, this man is shameless.

While the commission investigation was underway, Trudeau's lawyers sent a missive to Mr. Dion describing Ms. Wilson-Raybould in the most unflattering terms as difficult to work with; inherent in the message that anything that might have gone awry was her fault for being inflexible, not his for being ethically compromised. His concern for workers in Montreal failed to manifest equally with the far greater number of workers who have lost employment in Alberta resulting from Mr. Trudeau's complex machinations and hypocritical stance on the environment versus petroleum extraction.

A situation where the Canadian extraction industry is hobbled, investment has been halted, pipeline construction has been refused, to transport oil from the west to the east coast of Canada. Instead Canada continues to import oil from Saudi Arabia for domestic use, despite that Canada's proven reserves match those of the Saudis. And Canadian oil exports mostly to the United States, for lack of efficient transport, sell at below market value, cheating Alberta and Canada out of needed revenue.

"Justin Trudeau is guilty again. What we have now is a clear picture [of] who Justin Trudeau truly is, and it's not who he promised he would be. He promised he would be accountable and ethical. Instead, time and again, he has used the power of his office to enrich himself, reward his friends and punish his critics", charged the Conservative leader of the opposition, Andrew Scheer. While the RCMP has stated it is "examining this matter carefully with all available information and will take appropriate actions as required".

"There should be sanctions because there aren't any currently (for misbehaving parliamentarians. One should not ignore the dissuasive effect that sanctions can have. They help to focus the mind. They also provide Canadians with the assurance that there are consequences for breaching the act that are more serious than what has been called 'naming and shaming'", Mr. Dion once said. But under current rules there is no degree of 'punishment' that can be meted out to Mr. Trudeau, other than at the ballot box in October, and it's debatable how many voters who will 'trust' this man irrespective of anything he has done and will continue to do, would vote against his return for a second four years of misrule.

He will, as usual, wrap himself in the condescending cloak of entitlement and continue to hoist the standard of progressivism and globalism in a country he considers to be an example of post-nationalism under his knowledgeably exalted realm.

Trudeau rejects call for apology in wake of Ethics Commissioner's findings. Globe and Mail